Page 8 of 8 FirstFirst ... 678
Results 141 to 148 of 148
  1. #141
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Chicago, IL

    The old Athletic argument again...and the draw...

    Ah, watching the nonsense Digger/Gottlieb/Hubert/Rece bit right now, and per usual, the old Duke doesn't have good athletes bit is raised again as a reason Duke's in trouble in the first round. Just seems like we hear that every year. I know that's been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere on the board, so I'll refrain.

    Overall, I like the draw through 2 rounds. VCU will be a true test of how far Greg has come, and Scheyer MUST awaken from his funk-especially as a secondary ballhandler. Beat the press, you beat VCU. Shots will be open if we can break the initial backcourt pressure. If we don't break the pressure-we'll be down by 8-10 early. I think we're in good shape-give K a week to beat pressure full court, and we should be able to handle it.

    Round 2 if we get there? That game would depend largely on how it's officiated-as many of our forays with Big East foes in the tourney have historically. We all know Pitt is physical. But as good as Gray is, Josh could really give him some problems, particularly if Pitt can be goaded into playing Josh man to man. Gray wasn't the most mobile guy to start with and is less so now. They are strong at all positions-physically strong. But I like Duke's chances here as well. Our draw could have been a lot worse.

    Everyone keeps asking if this team can turn it up for the tournament. Thankfully, we're only 72 hours or so from finding out.

    LGD.

    dukemsu

  2. #142
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by Jumbo View Post
    This is not correct. A few years ago, the NCAA changed things so the Final Four pairings wouldn't be decided until after the brackets are set. In other words, they'd place the 4 #1 seeds in regions, then put the #1 overall's region against the #4 overall's region.
    so basically nobody knows why florida, the #1 #1 got sent to the midwest? the first 2 rounds don't really matter that much but if i were florida, i would much rather be playing in san antonio (i won't even get into how that is deemed "the south) than st louis against wisconsin (the #2).

  3. #143
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by dukie8 View Post
    so basically nobody knows why florida, the #1 #1 got sent to the midwest? the first 2 rounds don't really matter that much but if i were florida, i would much rather be playing in san antonio (i won't even get into how that is deemed "the south) than st louis against wisconsin (the #2).
    Well, for one, St. Louis is closer to Gainesville than San Antonio. I'm sure that played into the decision.

  4. #144
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by Jumbo View Post
    Except there was no discernable difference between Duke at home and on the road this year. Duke lost its first ACC home game to VT. Duke then went to GT and lost there too. They were hardly shell-shocked -- wasn't the game tied with a few minutes left? Duke then went on the road and kicked the crap out of Miami. Duke destroyed NCSU in Raleigh. Duke played much better at Clemson than at home vs. Clemson. Did with the two B.C. games. Again, this team was 4-4 in conference both home and away. The evidence doesn't support the argment that the team was any less prepared to play on the road than it was to play at home.
    if you want to just look at duke's record home vs away, then, sure there was no difference between home and away. however, if you look a little closer, duke played A LOT better at home (this is not surprising as most teams do as well). before even looking at who we played where, our 3 worst losses this year all were on the road in the acc -- ga tech by 11, maryland by 12 and unc by 14 (marquette was by 11 too). that stat in and of itself should tell you that we don't play as well on the road. however, there is more. let's compare how we did home vs away against the 5 teams we had home and away:

    unc -- home lost by 6 and road lost by 12 (better at home)
    maryland -- home lost by 8 and road lost by 12 (better at home)
    ga tech -- home won by 9 and road lost by 11 (better at home)
    bc -- home won by 14 and road won by 8 (better at home)
    clemson -- home won by 2 and road won by 5 (better on the road)

    so we played better against 4 of the 5 teams we played home and away and our 3 worst defeats in the acc were all on the road. there is no question that we played better at home.

    getting back to the original point, when duke put its schedule together last summer, it knew quite clearly that gtown was going to be at home, that gonzaga in new york would be a 95% home game, that both st johns and temple were going to be terrible and that kent st and george mason were going to be weak due to graduation. we got lucky (or unlucky depending on how you view it) that air force and marquette were better than predicted in the off season. in any event, i really don't see how cruising through mid majors at home and several teams expected to be on the fringe of the top 25 on neutral courts is going to help prepare a team for what turned out to be a brutal conference schedule.

    as the previous posted noted, in the late 80s and early 90s, we always would play top 10 caliber teams on the road (and at home) in preparation for the ncaas and that seemed to be a very successful formula (eg, ucla, arizona, michigan or lsu). we need to junk st johns and temple, even if it means buying out of those contracts, because they have become worse than useless since playing them means that we are not playing someone better.

  5. #145
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    -Just a few minor quibbles, Dukie8. I don't think we got lucky that Air Force and Marquette were good. If anything, both teams ended up underachieving. I thought Marquette was definitely a top-20 team in the preseason. I thought Air Force was borderline top-25. That was a quality tournament. And, there's nothing wrong with neutral-court games.

    -The final scores of the BC and Clemson games don't fully explain the way Duke dominated both teams on the road.

    -Again, in building a non-conference series, it's tough to figure out who will be good, year-in and year-out. Plus, teams like UCLA won't play Duke anymore because Duke kept taking recruits from California.

    -That said, I'd dump Temple too, but keep St. John's. It's always good to have a home-and-home with an NYC team, especially one that will rise again. Playing in The Garden every year is great for the kids. St. John's adds something to Duke's schedule.

    -Would I like one more regular, home-and-home series with a top team? Yeah. Do I think that this team needed a tough, non-conference road game in addition to all the other good teams it played at home or on neutral fields? No.

  6. #146
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Skinker-DeBaliviere, Saint Louis
    All this complaining about our schedule had me checking to see if the DST-patch on Windows had malfunctioned and turned my computer back to October.

    A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
    ---Roger Ebert


    Some questions cannot be answered
    Who’s gonna bury who
    We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
    ---Over the Rhine

  7. #147

    VooDoo it

    You guys seen this? pretty funny. I'm VooDooing the other teams for the whole tournament.

    http://www.hookyforhoops.com/?hcID=1...rc=emailVoodoo

  8. #148
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by Jumbo View Post
    -Just a few minor quibbles, Dukie8. I don't think we got lucky that Air Force and Marquette were good. If anything, both teams ended up underachieving. I thought Marquette was definitely a top-20 team in the preseason. I thought Air Force was borderline top-25. That was a quality tournament. And, there's nothing wrong with neutral-court games.

    -The final scores of the BC and Clemson games don't fully explain the way Duke dominated both teams on the road.

    -Again, in building a non-conference series, it's tough to figure out who will be good, year-in and year-out. Plus, teams like UCLA won't play Duke anymore because Duke kept taking recruits from California.

    -That said, I'd dump Temple too, but keep St. John's. It's always good to have a home-and-home with an NYC team, especially one that will rise again. Playing in The Garden every year is great for the kids. St. John's adds something to Duke's schedule.

    -Would I like one more regular, home-and-home series with a top team? Yeah. Do I think that this team needed a tough, non-conference road game in addition to all the other good teams it played at home or on neutral fields? No.
    i agree that there is nothing wrong with neutral games -- particularly when ncaa games basically are neutral games, often with a very corporate and indifferent atmosphere. here are the 1st polls:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankin...easonYear=2007

    based on that, marquette was expected to be quite good but air force was nowhere to be found. just add ONE big time oos road game next year and everyone will shut up. gtown could be it but i have a feeling their big guns will be long gone (particularly if they make a deep run).

Similar Threads

  1. Can we still get a #1 seed?
    By Johnny B in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 40
    Last Post: 03-11-2008, 10:31 PM
  2. NCAA Tourney Seed Predictions
    By DukeWarhead in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 03-08-2007, 11:46 PM
  3. I love our #7 seed!
    By ccCrazie in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 03-05-2007, 10:58 AM
  4. What will our NCAA seed be?
    By hurleyfor3 in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 02-27-2007, 10:44 PM
  5. Seed chit-chat
    By JasonEvans in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 52
    Last Post: 02-27-2007, 02:11 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •